I don't find him offensive in any way and want him off; having said that i don't find him particularly engaging and want him to stay.

Therein lies the problem for me with Ricky (and also Zoe) - there's nothing about them that grabs me and say 'Hey! Pay attention!'.

In the past there have been other dancers who have come out in Week 1 and been good, and I've noticed them and thought 'You know what? I like this person. I'm going to enjoy watching them'. I saw it with Alesha and Kelly in series 5; last year I saw it with Austin (and to a lesser extent Rachel). Tom last year I grew to like, but it took me a few weeks to actually take notice.

For me, when I watch Strictly I'm watching the personalities that have gripped me; I'm as interested in them as I am in what they're dancing. Yes Ricky is good, as is Zoe, but I just haven't connected with them. Ali is good, but her 'fear' for want of a better word makes me want to watch her and wish her well. The same goes for Laila - when she's good she's very good, but when she's bad I feel sorry for her and want her to get a chance to do well again.

When you get a couple who come out in Week 1, smash it out of the park, and continue to do so week on week, there's no excitement for me in watching their performance so their personality needs to get me watching them. Ricky just hasn't got my attention.

Excellent post says it all.
Ricky is a great dancer and I do not find him boring at all. He seems to get on well with his fellow celebs always having a laugh etc. I do not find him big headed either.
People do not like the fact that he and Natalie have come out from week one and their dancing has been amazing -
what is he supposed to do tone it down.
Natalie is lovely and of course she wants to do well they all do look at Kristina's tears on IT2 on going out of the competition!!
Are we going to have to have this every week or when he gets his next ten why cannot people just enjoy his dancing!!

Excellent post says it all.
Ricky is an incredable dancer and he and Natalie are lovely together the first week I had to keep re-watching his dances.
I do not find him boring or big headed he is working hard and has an aim to win SCD whats wrong with that also Natalie is doing great with him and of course wants to do well in her first year here. Everyone wants to win just look at Kristina's tears on IT2 on being out of the competition the other night.
Are we going to have to have a thread about him every time he says anything or does well on a Saturday night - how very strange. I am just going to enjoy their dancing along with some others who can dance.

Sorry double post - computer playing up!!

If it was all about the dancing it would be a very different show .We are shown bits of training , snippets of their day , we have ITT and interviews and all sorts
And so we are being fed little bits of personality and so is the show
Its about both and is produced to be about both and so people take both sides into consideration
I certainly enjoy some couples better than others , not simply their dance , but the interaction and personality

We are out here and growing in numbers. the boy has done nothing wrong apart from been a naturally gifted dancer and I wish him all the best of luck in the competition. Natalie as a newcomer is lovely and a true credit to the show.

Good luck to them both.

Your comments have are spot on and I totally agree with you.

A part of me wishes he would apply this drive for perfection to his grammar (grammar attack!), or at least get a Caps Lock Key. I'm sorry, but it is mighty distracting.

If I have a problem with Ricky, it is not so much that his personality isn't electric, but that I don't really see a connection between Natalie and him when they dance. They clearly get on well, but I don't think it comes across well when they dance. I would agree that sometimes personality can be considered too important (bring on John Sergeant) and am one to put dancing ability first, but on-floor personality is important, and perhaps that is in part what some posters (like me) are not seeing.

Although Ricky is not helping himself off-floor with the faux-humility, which then sits awkwardly with their clear ambition.

Yes, he is trying desperately hard to appear 'umble' which is rather amusing.

He is obviously a natural dancer and he is very good looking but along with Zoe I don't really connect with him. they have done nothing wrong and are perfectly okay as people but I still couldn't really care less whether they are in the show or not, whether they stay or leave, basically I am indifferent to both of them.

Much as I would like to judge people purely on dancing alone, I know I do not, if they engage me then that makes a big difference to my view, it is part of the show. I have more interest in the ones I actively do not like than the those like Ricky and Zoe who, as far as I am concerned, are just there. This may change as time goes on but so far these are the only two I don't really care about.

Great name He isn't necessarily my favourite, but I hope he does well. It would be nice if the best dancer won, as that rarely happens.

I can honestly say I do not actively dislike Ricky and Natalie, although Ricky seem a real proficient dancer they leave me unmoved, the same goes for Ali and Brian .

I would like to make clear that I dont 'hate' Ricky or Natalie and I certainly dont think they should be 'going home' any time soon, however all the winners of Strictly in the past have had a certain level of dancing ability linked with personality on the dance floor, and/or a great chemistry with their professional partners. Unfortunately for him Ricky doesnt seem to have this, or if he has its not showing on the telly. !!

As Strictly is also a popularity contest Ricky may very well have enough people who think hes lovely to push him to the glitterball. However if the bigger personalitys of Ricky Groves, Chris or Tuffers up the stakes in the dance department he wont win it in my view.

The show isn't just about dancing, as you rightly say, but as it stands it caters for different tastes, for example:

Some people DO watch it for the dancing, and appreciate the likes of Ricky and Natalie because of their dedication - and there is nothing wrong with that. Liking or disliking the personalities is not their priority.

Other people prefer to watch for the sheer entertainment and don't really mind if the dancing is good or bad - they look for personality and likeability, and there is nothing wrong with that either.

Others, of course, watch it for a mixture of love of dance AND entertainment.

In other words, Strictly can be all things to all tastes, which is probably why it has been so successful.

And the person who comes out the winner is usually someone who manages to be a happy mix of the 2

Personally I think Ricky's on-floor relationship with Natalie is brilliant, they look like a partnership of equals, she clearly trusts him completely.

And in terms of faux-humility, I don't see it myself. When he or Natalie says that of course they have things to improve on, it is true! He isn't perfect, and even if you have danced for years there is always something to work on. With Ricky he could improve his head position in ballroom, and work on his hand positions in latin for a start. I'm sure Natalie has a much bigger list for him!

Anyway Ricky and Natalie can't help that they keep getting asked where they can go from their latest performance, does anyone really think it would be a good for him (assuming he felt this way, which is doubtful) to say "Well I'm brilliant, so I'll just keep doing the same as before!"??

For me Ricky's performances are the highlight of the show which I couldn't bear to miss. It has always been more about the dancing for me.

I think his dancing is very good and I don’t care whether he is dull – which he is. However as an actor he should emote during the dance and I don’t think he is doing that fully yet. If Jade can work this out so should he. Maybe it will come as he masters more of the technique but I don’t think he deserves 10s until his dance is technically good AND his style and face portray the story of the dance. I think he should definitely stay in as he is very good now and if he continues to improve at the rate he is then he should produce some amazing dances. He obviously has natural talent so started of higher than some of the others but he is also improving rapidly. I certainly don’t think someone should be penalised because they have natural talent.

I enjoy watching him, Jade and Ali already because of the quality of their dancing - although they are all still a bit spotty. I think it is good that the good dancers stay in and improve and challenge others. It makes the mediocre ones try harder & at this stage & it is fun to watch the good dances, the mediocre and the no hopers- for different reasons obviously.

Ricky can dance but he bores me. I don't feel any emotion when I watch him dance (apart from boredom) and I see no real connection between him and Natalie which is a shame.

Having seen him on ITT I'd say he makes a very good model.

I concur with all that. It's like Len's analogy with brussels sprouts many moons ago on ITT. He hates brussels sprouts. Others love them. He's not wrong. They're not wrong. It's a matter of taste. And that's all dancing is for me...taste. I could sit and watch Darren and Lilia all day whereas Colin and Erin bored me rigid. It's taste. Obviously all the couples who have won have been exceptional in different ways. What pushes a couple to the winning position is any combination of different factors, like chemistry, emotional engagement with the audience, the routines, and the personalities. It'll happen that of the top 3 or 4 couples in the running one couple just has an edge with a larger proportion of the audience than the others. That's all it is really.

Unfortunately, I can see Ricky and Natalie are good. But that's it. I don't feel moved or engaged or very excited by what he does. He doesn't emote for me and there's no warmth. He's been a bit overmarked from the beginning and so there may be no incentive to improve either. I just feel it's all about the winning winning winning with them and that there's no real enjoyment of the process or fun. Can't get enamoured of their routines either. Darren and Lilia had endless fun throughout and produced the best routines IMO that's why they won. They engaged the audience totally as they could project themselves into Darren's shoes and say, well I could do that. It really niggles me I'm afraid when Darren gets stick on here STILL.:sleep: He did more than anyone else to popularise dancing, and the series he won in was the best with no silly misplaced PR in the papers. The public enjoyed it more and respected it for that reason. It'd be nice if we could get back to that relaxed easy going mood with less hype and more actual dancing. But I think those days are gone.

[quote=Monkseal;36162973]I think his main problem is that he's quite nice, if a bit dull, and the show isn't storylining him out of it - the same with Zoe (who is a bit less nice, and a bit less dull). They've pulled out some awful storyline guff to promote people who were quite nice and a bit dull before (Alesha's "becoming a lady" nonsense, or any time they sent anybody to an acting coach) but for him they're not bothering - in fact the show is all but telling us he's the Austin - a strong starter who will fall down at the end.

Compare this to Ali who has nabbed herself a romance, Laila who has more storylines than she knows what to do with, Jade who has her "softening up" journey and that luminous cack she puts all over her face, Ricky G with his "clown who wants to be taken seriously" bobbins, Jo's learning that learning to love herself is the greatest love of all, and the crowd-pleasing charm of Phil and Chris, and now Craig's "I wanna go on holidays to Blackpool" gubbins and he looks a bit like a spare part, supported by those people who drone on all "this is a dance competition with entertainment elements you know".

Add in that his partner is basically an anonymous (if very talented) slab who chose the worst possible line to introduce herself (Hi! I want a 10 week 1 please) and who has from that point had a personality I don't even think she has projected onto her, and the tendency of quite a few people (*cover your ears if you want to avoid race wank, I'm not accusing any individual here of this, but I am just saying*) to read cockiness and arrogance into any young, handsome, well-built black male whether it's there or not and he's always going to struggle a little bit.[/QUOTE

Some very fair comments there monkseal! Personally I blame Natatlie for Ricky's lack of afinity with people - she is one competitive lady and dragged him with her! They all want to win otherwise they wouldnt be on the show and some of the other contestants imo are more annoying!

Depends whether or not the klutzes at the BBC ever recognise that to ensure SCD's longevity, they need to accentuate what differentiated the show from all other successful reality programmes in the first place - namely that the celebs were being tutored by highly qualified professionals to master not only a technical skill, but also an art form.

In their infinite wisdom, some dolt (probably a complete cabal of them) have decreed that the fine balance between dancing skill and frothy celebrity tosh should swing in the favour of the latter. Instead of gently refining what the viewer was actually able to learn (perish the thought that we should actually LEARN anything from a reality show ) and enabling the viewer engage to an even greater degree with the celebs & their pros - and Goddamit even attempt to judge their progress for themselves - the BBC have erred in favour of the vacuous.

I don't want SCD to become a totally dance-centric show - I love the silliness of it all. But neither do I want to see the whole bloody point of the show - DANCING!! - submerged beneath Brian & Ali's bloody showmance (let them do it behind closed doors - which I trust they do, anyway...), or the size of Rocky Whittle's whottle, or any other such bilge.
Last edited by fancynancy : 22-10-2009 at 17:18

He doesnt do it for me....sounds too false...I also heard he had dancing lessons with his girlfriend........who cares.....

I like the ones with the better journeys...Ricky or Tuffy........

Nail. Hit. Head.

I'm mildly interested for 2 seconds if Brian and Ali are getting it on. Good luck to them. I don't need it repeated ad nauseum throughout the series. Let them concentrate on their routines. Clearly a lot of people are forgetting what they're supposed to be doing on the floor because of all the tasteless and depressing bilge yapped on by Bruce, the tabloids, etc etc though of course some (Ricky Wottle, I'm looking at you) have had a small part -ahem- to play in that.

There was a genuine effort in series2, 3 and 4 to engage the viewer in the difficulties of the dances and what the contestants were supposed to be doing and whether they were doing it. No more.

The big killer was the dance off as it's no coincidence that the worst results and most bizarre voting patterns have occurred since it's introduction. Perish the thought that the public are allowed a free choice in who they want to kick out if they are bored with someone.
Last edited by nancy1975 : 22-10-2009 at 17:33

Can't stand the way he says Na'alie. GRRR! I don't dislike him but when he does that I want to throw something.

Thats made me laugh and spray my tea over my keyboard